1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to surgical fasteners and, more particularly, to surgical staples for use in surgical staplers having anvil pockets for forming the staples.
2. Background of Related Art
Surgical stapling instruments have become critical to many life saving surgical procedures. Surgical staples are usually mechanically inserted into tissue with surgical stapling instruments such as those known as anastomosis devices, including gastrointestinal anastomosis devices and transverse anastomosis devices.
In such devices, the staples are loaded in one or more elongated or annular rows into a cartridge. A mechanism for pushing, or driving the stapler is actuated to drive the staples through tissue toward a deforming anvil. At the conclusion of the driving operation, the legs of each staple are conventionally clamped or bent by the anvil to a closed configuration.
One type of conventional staple used with both gastrointestinal anastomosis and transverse anastomosis-type surgical stapling devices is made of stainless steel or titanium. The undeformed staple is generally U-shaped and includes a back span and two leg members depending substantially perpendicularly from the back span. The staple penetrates the tissue from one side to engage an anvil spaced apart and located at an opposing side of the tissue. The staple is bent by having the legs engage and follow an anvil to form a substantially B-shaped closed staple. In this closed configuration, tissue is compressed between the legs and backspan of the staple.
Conventional staples, such as staples having a substantially circular cross-section, require approximately the same amount of force to form the staple into its final shape as is required to twist or malform the staple. Such staples are susceptible to malformation during formation. In order to minimize the risk of staple malformation, it would be desirable to have a staple that requires less amount of force to fire or properly form the staple than the force needed to twist or malform the staple.